Steve Barclay admits some new hospitals won't be brand new - BBC

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By Becky Morton & Laura Kuenssberg

BBC Politics

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has admitted not all the 40 new hospitals promised for England by 2030 will be brand new.

He told the BBC the pledge covered a "range" of building work.

Refurbishments and new wings are also included in the figure.

Mr Barclay also acknowledged that some of the hospitals originally promised would now be completed after 2030 but a total of 40 projects would still be finished by that date.

Pressed over whether a refurbishment could be considered a "new" hospital, Mr Barclay told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: "If it's a new wing, a new facility, a women's and children hospital for example as part of a wider compass... what matters to you as a patient is whether the facilities are state of the art, whether they're new."

Mr Barclay said: "We're being honest in saying there will be difficulties on some of the schemes. There's often local factors that need to be worked through like land acquisitions, service redesign… which make it challenging to complete those by 2030."

He added: "We are being honest that some schemes will take slightly longer than 2030 but we're going to get on with them."

The commitment to build 40 new hospitals by 2030 was made by Boris Johnson and included in the Conservative Party's 2019 manifesto.

However, this week the government said eight schemes would now be completed after 2030 to prioritise five other more urgent developments.

The five hospitals are deemed at risk of collapse because of deteriorating concrete infrastructure.

Earlier this week Mr Barclay insisted the government would still meet its manifesto pledge because as well as these five hospitals it would also build three mental health hospitals on top of the original projects promised.

On Sunday's programme he continued to refer to "40 new hospitals" even though he finally accepted that not all of them would be brand new.

He told the BBC: "What the manifesto said was 40 new hospitals, that is what we committed to in the House [of Commons] on Thursday."

A BBC investigation last week found building work was yet to start for 33 of the government's promised 40 new hospitals.

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Meanwhile, Mr Barclay clashed with the leader of the junior doctors' union, who also appeared on the programme, over the government's pay offer.

He accused junior doctors of being unreasonable by refusing to budge on their demand for a 35% pay rise.

But Dr Vivek Trivedi, who co-chairs the British Medical Association (BMA) Junior Doctors Committee, said deals that amounted to a real-terms pay cut were "driving doctors away".

Junior doctors are set to walk out for 72 hours in June after pay talks stalled.

It will be the third time junior doctors in England have staged strikes this year, after industrial action in March and April.

Ministers have offered a 5% pay rise but Dr Trivedi said this would amount to "a massive real-terms pay cut" due to rising prices.

"It was clear that after the government offered us their 5%, despite us going back and being creative… they were the ones who wouldn't budge," he said.

However, Mr Barclay said: "They've refused to move from the 35%. And I don't think that is a fair and reasonable demand for them to take."

He added: "We want to engage with them, we have been doing. It's the junior doctors who walked away from those negotiations by calling strikes."

The health secretary insisted the government had already improved its pay offer from what was originally recommended by the independent pay review body.

Asked what it would take to resolve the dispute, Dr Trivedi said: "We're trying all we can and are eager and ready to get back to the negotiating table - it is the government who are refusing to meet us there.

"We have budged and are very happy to explore ways to fully restore our doctor's pay and we've come up with a variety of proposals to do that."

The BMA says junior doctors have seen pay cut by 26% since 2008 once inflation - the rate prices are rising - is taken into account. The union wants a 35% pay rise to reverse this.

Dr Trivedi said a pay offer which did not reverse this trajectory "would not be fair or reasonable".